When Barack Obama announced on Tuesday that the US Congress had agreed a deal to raise the national debt ceiling, he thanked the American people for "all your Tweets". During a standoff that placed the world economy on the precipice, the US president had used his @barackobama account to call on voters to message their local Republican congressmen and demand a compromise agreement. Twitter, it seems, has the capacity to rescue the world economy from oblivion. On Tyneside, though, Alan Pardew takes a dimmer view of the social media phenomenon.

Newcastle United and their manager fell out with their combustible midfielder Joey Barton for his tweeted accusation that his club had "put out false statements via the [Newcastle] Chronicle", among other things. "Maybe if it wasn't for Twitter and this instant media it may have got resolved on Monday morning with me and Joey in my office," an indignant Pardew said on Thursday. "The problem with Twitter – we need to get a hold of this. We have got nothing from the Premier League on how to deal with this."

The Premier League is bemused by Pardew's criticism. It has chosen not to adopt a prescriptive stance over social media since there is no consistent view among the 20 member clubs about how to approach it. The League's chief executive, Richard Scudamore, has said: "The whole Twitter thing is interesting; I encourage Twitter with the caveat that [players] realise they're talking into a microphone." Most clubs employ a code of conduct and, after speaking to Sir Alex Ferguson, Pardew is now introducing Manchester United's code at Newcastle.

But before that eminently obvious first step at sanitising Barton's public statements, there were already means for Pardew to deal with a player who has consistently proved himself apt to yield to atavistic urges. Twitter is a new and developing medium but the catch-all clause in the standard Premier League contract gives Newcastle recourse to disciplinary action. "Whenever circumstances permit the player shall give to the club reasonable notice of his intention to make any contributions to the public media in order to allow representations to be made to him on behalf of the club if it so desires," reads clause 3.2.5 of every Premier League player's contract. It is fair to assume that Barton had not run his thoughts past the club before clicking the send button on: "One day the board might realise, what the shirt signifies. HONOUR and PRIDE."

Yet despite such controversial outbursts Peter Wood, a football blogger and social media expert at the digital agency Steak, believes Newcastle should not focus on how Barton has maligned them through Twitter but instead on how it has rehabilitated Barton. He has shown a cerebral side previously unknown to fans who were more acquainted with his criminal record than his consumption of Nietzsche and Virgil.

"Barton was one of the most hated footballers in the game," Wood says. "But Twitter's changed that perception. He re-tweets and champions his followers and it's given us a whole new perspective. This is how he has explained he is a changed man, and it's fantastic. The flipside is that footballers are not particularly well educated and they can be inflamed."

A case in point was when Wayne Rooney tweeted in response to a fan: "I will put u asleep within 10 seconds hope u turn up if u don't gonna tell everyone ur scared u little nit. I'll be waiting." Despite stressing this was never meant as anything other than banter it led to damage to the Manchester United and England forward's reputation, with front-page tabloid headlines screaming: "Furious Rooney threatens to knock out fan."

This, according to Wood, was naivety on the player's part. "I think social media training has to come in with the big football clubs," he says. "Clubs are worried because they want to control everything but it's wrong for them to ban and censor. There do need to be guidelines, though."

Lots of players have Twitter accounts and most of the longest running – Rio Ferdinand's @rioferdy5 has 1.3 million followers – already demur from saying anything to discomfort their clubs. Some players have built a media career from their Twitter followings, with Robbie Savage a case study.

From the irrepressible Barton, though, a warts-and-all portrait is to be expected. His account biography borrows a line from the Smiths' song Still Ill. "I decree today that life is simply taking and not giving; England is mine and it owes me a living." That song's refrain goes: "Ask me why and I'll spit in your eye; ask me why and I'll spit in your eye," which all seems most appropriate for a man who once stubbed out a cigar in a youth-team player's eye and beat his team-mate Ousmane Dabo until his closed over. Yet in the same song Morrissey also gave another message: "But we cannot cling to the old dreams any more; No we cannot cling to those dreams." And here Pardew should take note.